1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and more particularly relates to data processing systems having user assistance resources.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide documentation for the purpose of permitting a user to operate a data processing system. With the earliest data processing systems, this documentation took the form of user manuals which described the operation and utilization of the corresponding data processing system.
As systems were designed to be more interactive, it became common to provide user documentation within the data processing system hardware and software itself. In the simplest concept, this may take the form of "OFF" and "ON" designations on the power switch. In a far more complex form indicative of the current state of the art, commercial operating systems such as Windows 95 provide "HELP" capabilities in addition to the normal user manual.
A typical user interface may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,686, issued to Koppolu et al., and incorporated herein by reference. This user interface provides opportunity for the user to enter data into the running program.
A rudimentary method of using animation for augmenting the help function may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,035, issued to Duggan et al., and incorporated herein by reference. Animation can be helpful in showing a user in pictorial form, concepts which are difficult to describe verbally.
Whereas it is often helpful to provide the information associated with the help function to the user, in certain instances it may be even more helpful to provide tool programs to enable the user to directly act upon help information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,670, issued to Bier et al., and incorporated herein by reference, shows a limited capability to provide such tool programs. Even of more assistance are automation programs which actually provide the user with a solution to the problem rather than just offering information and/or tools to assist the user in implementing the solution.
As systems become larger and more complex, it may be desirable to externalize the help function from the application program. This is suggested by U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,684, issued to Dudzik et al., and incorporated by reference. Such externalization permits the addition of help information after finalization of the application program without disturbing the basic application.
The major problem not addressed by the prior art, however, relates to providing user assistance regarding the interoperability of multiple, diverse system elements. This problem often exists concerning different application programs within a single computer. More difficult still, however, are interoperability concerns regarding multiple applications hosted on multiple computer platforms. Oftentimes, such interoperability issues are completely outside the scope of all of the user documentation and therefore not addressed at all.